The present invention relates generally to the automatic detection of lost persons or crafts and the automatic surveillance and monitoring of sensitive areas, and more particularly, to a system wherein a multi-spectral video camera is combined with computer algorithms to automatically and in real-time detect targets having unique specific spectral and spatial characteristics, such as visual distress streamers, boats, etc.
The ability-to find persons lost at sea or on land remains a challenge, even with today""s advancements in electronic locating devices. There are a number of visual distress signals available today that increase a person""s probability of detection by increasing their signal target. Most of these distress signals suffer from their short-lived duration, their high failure rate, or their high false alarm rate. Smoke flares, aerial flares, and sea marker dye are some of the more common visual distress signals; however, they all suffer from the shortcoming described above. With the advent of the distress signal streamer, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,287, there no longer are problems with duration, failure rate, or false alarms. Despite this advancement, however, the distress signal streamer still has to be visually spotted by a human in order for a successful rescue to take place. The humans searching by visual means above are prone to periods of inattention and reduced performance.
Even with the best emergency locating beacons (e.g. EPIRB""s and ELT""s), the search pilots must still visually locate a lost person, prior to rescue. Searchers can home in on the signal; however, time is usually of the essence due to cold water, injury, shark threat, enemy threat, and other factors.
Current surveillance and monitoring procedures also suffer from their reliance on human vision and attention to successfully complete many tasks.
Therefore, the search portion of the task can nevertheless be improved to supplement the human eye.
It is an object of the present invention to provide search and rescue crews with a device that incorporates multi-spectral cameras and computer software to enable to more effectively and efficiently locate persons that are lost at sea.
It is another object of the present invention to enhance the capability of surveillance and monitoring by using digital imaging multi-spectral camera coupled to a real-time computer software.
It is yet another object of the present invention to permit the device to be mounted on aircraft, boats, land vehicles, fixed land stations, and/or spacecraft to achieve enhanced search and rescue and surveillance and monitoring capabilities.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a device that incorporates multi-spectral cameras and computer software that can be readily modified to detect specific spectral and spatial targets of interest.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a device that incorporates multi-spectral cameras and computer software with a capability to register, in real-time, an audio and visual alarm once a target has been detected, as well as recording the GPS position of the located target.
In summary, the present invention provides a device for locating a lost target or for surveillance and monitoring of an area for a target having spectral and spatial profiles, comprising a digital multi-spectral camera aimed at an area of interest, the camera generating spectral and spatial output; and a computer including a program for processing in real-time the output of the camera, and triggering an alarm when the target is detected from the output.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description.